Ithaca College released its 2023 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report on Sept. 26, which includes safety procedures, prevention programming, policies and statistics of crime and misconduct.
Updates to the ASFSR
Elyse Nepa, assistant director of Clery Act and prevention education in the Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management, said there are fewer updates to this year’s ASFSR because so much was done in past years to review and update everything.
“The goal is always to be more than compliant,” Nepa said. “I don’t want to ever just do something because you tell me to. We do not just check boxes. And so I think as a team and as an institution, we’ve done a really good job at looking at those policies throughout the past several years.”
The hours for the Student Auxiliary Safety Patrol changed slightly on weeknights. The students on the SASP team patrol campus from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. on weeknights and 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. on the weekends. Previously, SASP patrolled campus until 3 a.m. on weekends.
Potential upcoming revisions
The college is in the process of implementing a new alert system for the main campus called Alertus. Nepa said the campus community can expect to see the system ready by January. Alertus helps notify everyone on campus of an emergency through options like alerts on college desktop computers, TV monitors, personal cell phones and campus phones.
While no definite changes to the Clery Act have been announced, Nepa said educational institutions are expecting some revisions to occur in Fall 2023.
In March 2021, legislation was reintroduced in the Report and Educate About Campus Hazing Act to require hazing incidents to be reported in campus crime reports. The legislation also advocated to establish a definition of hazing so there can be clear guidelines on what is a reportable offense. In October 2020, the Department of Education rescinded the 2016 Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting and replaced it with the Clery Act Appendix, which is a more brief resource. The Clery Center states it will continue to advocate for improved guidance like the handbook had prior to 2020.
“We are just hearing rumors about all of these changes coming to Clery,” Nepa said. “Another edition will likely be mental-health focused.”
President Joe Biden has repeatedly stated his plan to overturn changes made to Title IX during former President Donald Trump’s administration. The Biden Administration was supposed to make the changes in May, which was then delayed until October. However, some policy experts and practitioners believe this deadline will be pushed again because of the time it takes to review and approve such revisions.
In December 2021, the DOE made a partial revision to Trump’s Title IX policies, allowing all evidence to be considered during a live hearing whether or not a party or witness is absent. At that time, Ithaca College quickly adopted the policy change and sent a notice of republication with an ASFSR that matched.
Ithaca College’s work outside the Clery Act
Only some crimes are required to be included in campus safety reports to be aligned with the Clery Act. For example, the Clery Act does not cover sextortion, which is the act of threatening to share nude or explicit images of someone else. Nepa said that during 2022, OPS saw an increase in student reports of sextortion. So, Nepa and Title IX Coordinator Linda Koenig created a program called “Who are you sexting?” which discussed sextortion and educated students about safe practices.
“The FBI a couple of months later put out a public safety alert to say, ‘Hey, this is something that’s happening across the country,’ but we were already building our program,” Nepa said. “Our job is to create a safe community [and] a safe environment for our students, faculty and staff. Outside of compliance we should be stepping up and doing certain things like [sextortion prevention], which is why we have so many different programs.”
Community building and programming
While OPS has many crime prevention and education programs, Nepa said it also prioritizes community building. The 2023 ASFSR states, “Public Safety makes every effort to enhance the quality of community life by establishing healthy and positive relationships and partnerships with campus community members.”
OPS conducts self-defense courses, naloxone training, bystander intervention courses and organizes events throughout Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April. The ASFSR also lists other events OPS holds like Paint-a-Pumpkin with Public Safety, First-Gen Socials, Car Basics and Breaking Bread with Public Safety. Nepa said that during summer 2023 she taught yoga and self-defense courses to students. She said opportunities for OPS to engage with the community in different ways are essential to making a difference.
“It builds a bridge between our community and our department,” Nepa said. “It makes it easier for people to come to us and to say, ‘Hey, I experienced something. Can you help me?’ Because they see you in so many spaces, and you’re safe. You are a person that’s there to help them and they know that.”